Robert Levine

Review of Hearthstone Bistro

The rating for this restaurant is a bit difficult....

The rating for this restaurant is a bit difficult. We enjoyed our dinner, however, our experience was hurt by several missteps, the most glaring was our server.

From the standpoint of the food, I would rate The Hearthstone Restaurant 4-stars. We thoroughly enjoyed our fried perch and fried whitefish. We enjoyed the Field Greens, Arugula, Beet & Goat Cheese Salad however, it was not as described - there was no arugula in ours. We also enjoyed the Oven Roasted Mussels. However, they were difficult to share. They were served in a very large bowl with quite a bit of a very flavorful broth which we had trouble enjoying. We were not give bowls so we could share the dish, we ended using bread plates. We also were not given soup spoons rather there was only one large serving spoon in the dish. I assume that the chef doesn t think that someone may want to eat the excellent broth in which the mussels were served. In general, the presentation was wonderful. The kitchen obviously realized that we eat with out eyes first.

From the standpoint of service, I would rate The Hearthstone Restaurant as only one star. Our server was dreadful and did nothing to try and make our experience more enjoyable. In fact, when there was a problem she implied that we were responsible or stupid. Our salad was brought before the bistro classic hot dish, she said that we wanted it that way because we were hungry. We had told her that we wanted to share it as an appetizer. We ordered wine to compliment our entrees. Ir was served well after the entrees arrived. It was also spoiled. When she finally came by and we told her there was a problem with our wine, she reassured us that there was nothing wrong with any of their wines because they sell a lot of wine and she was sure that is wasn t open in the refrigerator for more than a couple of days. She begrudgingly took it back and acted as if we knew nothing about wine and should have complained. After we finished our entrees, she returned with a taste of the wine in two wine glasses and told us they tried the wine and it was bad. She then wanted to bring us more of this wine to savor after dinner. She obviously knew nothing about wine. In fact, she knew very little about the items on the menu, when we asked her about some items she was unable to explain them. Before my entree, our server properly removed the dirty knife I place of a plate. I asked for a new knife, but never brought it. Fortunately, it was possible to eat my whitefish entree without a knife.
Because of the service, and since the service can be a significant portion of a dining experience, I rated this restaurant as only 2-stars. Had we had good service, I would have rated it 4-stars.